Robert Pollard fires his musicians so often that his band Guided By Voices could arguably be considered a solo career. So one has to wonder what the difference is between a Guided By Voices record and Pollard's solo efforts. Well, it's simple-- Pollard feels that there are certain expectations for a Guided By Voices release while his solo records are his chance to be truly spontaneous. It's something that comes across loud and clear on his second solo outing.

Waved Out's tracks are more casual than those on recent Guided By Voices efforts. Songs like "People Are Leaving," "Rumbling Joker" and "Caught Waves Again" display a new, distinctly melancholic side of Pollard. And "Showbiz Opera Walrus" and "Picking Seeds From My Skull" sound like the mutated offspring of GBV oddities like Bee Thousand's "Hot Freaks"-- pure products of experimentation.

But the album also has a lot in common with standard Guided By Voices fare; Pollard again tries to pull off mega- budget production techniques on his five- and- dime eight- track recorder and second- hand instruments. And "Make Use" and "Subspace Biographies" may as well have come off Mag Earwhig whose anthem "I Am A Tree" was among some of the most indie arena rock songs ever recorded.

Waved Out is a short album by Pollard's standards but there's certainly no lack of fresh material. The 15 songs on the record have focus for once, as if they were all written in one day under the influence of the Beatles' White Album, the Who's Quadrophenia, and Jack Logan's Bulk. Of course, there are going to be a few fans disappointed by the lack of balls- out rock-n-roll. I say, this is the man's private time. Let him rock out on the next Guided By Voices LP.

-Ryan Schreiber